Nightmare
by Demon Lord Satan
Summary: Hershel suffers from relentless nightmares after the explosion at the Institute of Polydimensional Research that caused Claire's death.


_Hershel stared in shock at the burning building. He was too stunned to move until he heard her voice._

" _Hershel! Help me!"_

 _Claire needed him. He ran, pushing his way past the crowd that had gathered—this was no time to worry about being a gentleman, with her life on the line—and threw himself into the Institute of Polydimensional Research._

 _It didn't take him long to find his girlfriend, sprawled on the floor next to what had been a time machine, but it was still too long. Even now, though, she looked beautiful. She opened her eyes and murmured weakly, "Hershel… You're here… I'm sorry I have to leave you like this…"_

" _Claire, don't go!" Hershel cried desperately. "You don't have to die."_

" _Take care of the hat I gave you, okay?" she whispered as she closed her eyes, hand twitching ever so slightly toward him._

 _And then she moved no more._

=^w^=

Hershel Layton awoke with tears staining his face for the fifth time that week. He had some variation of the same dream every night, sometimes multiple times in the same night. Sometimes she said she loved him, sometimes that she hated him for not trying hard enough to save her, to keep her from participating in that terrible experiment. But every time, she told him to take care of the hat. His hand rose unbidden to adjust said hat—she had told him to never take it off, so now he even slept with it most nights. Not that he planned to, of course. Lately, he had begun to avoid sleep, without much success—he would immerse himself in a book or notes or research or small tasks, only to gradually doze off due to exhaustion, exhaustion that went unrelieved when he soon awoke again, usually within an hour.

The young professor's hands shook as he picked up the book he had dropped and brushed it off, trying to recall what page he had been reading. Uncertain of where he had been, he sighed, thinking that perhaps a nice cup of tea would sooth his nerves. He rose from the sofa and set about preparing some, noting that the clock showed that it was still only 2 AM as he did so.

A few minutes later, Hershel was inhaling the calming fragrance of chamomile as his tea steeped. He relaxed as the dream that had awoken him faded from his mind, not gone completely, but no longer as horrifyingly vivid as it had been. He occupied himself with thinking of puzzles to prevent himself from dwelling on it. However, with calmness came renewed exhaustion, and despite his best efforts he soon nodded off again.

=^w^=

 _The wailing of a little boy who had lost his parents brought Hershel to his senses. He desperately wanted to get to Claire, to see if she was alright, to save her if she needed to be saved, if she could be saved, but if he did, this child would throw himself into the fire and die. He may have been willing to risk his own life, but he couldn't stand back and let this child kill himself. Furthermore, he could imagine Claire's disapproval if she found out that he stood back and let that happen. So he restrained the boy and tried to talk sense into him._

" _If you go back in there, you'll die too!"_

 _And in that moment, he almost felt that Claire was chastising him for nearly doing the same stupid mistake he was preventing this boy from making._

 _As the time passed, the fire department slowly succeeded in extinguishing the fire, and the now-orphaned boy was taken away. Hershel then made his way to the destruction that had been the Institute of Polydimensional Research, to the lab his girlfriend had worked in. That was, of course, where he found her, badly burned from the explosion that had stolen her life. The sight pained him, mentally, emotionally, and even physically._

 _The room faded around him, but even as it did, he heard a whisper from a shadowy figure in a corner._

" _A necessary sacrifice."_

=^w^=

Hershel jerked awake with a gasp. It took him a few minutes to compose himself and remember where he was. He then glanced at the clock—2:45 AM. Drat, his tea would be undrinkable by now… He stood and began pacing, the newest dream harrowing him.

" _A necessary sacrifice."_ But her death wasn't a "sacrifice", was it? Surely it was just a tragic accident? He hadn't heard anything to suggest—

… Come to think of it, he hadn't heard much about the explosion, had he? He vaguely recalled taking a look at the morning paper the day after and shoving it away in despondency after realizing that there was not even a mention of Claire's death. Thinking back on it, he wasn't sure there was anything about the explosion that had caused it and several other deaths, either. Strange, that, seeing as it was one of the most advanced research facilities, with an experiment on time travel, no less, and it caused quite a bit of death and destruction—Claire was the only one that mattered to him, but others had lost people too, like that little boy whose parents died—and it seemed like the sort of thing that would be the front-page headline for a week. Perhaps he had just been blocking it out, ignoring it, not paying attention to any reminders of the incident? He glanced at the corner where he had thrown the recent newspapers after losing interest, day after day. There was only one way to find out.

By 4 AM, Hershel was convinced that he hadn't imagined the lack of coverage of the event. A few words about rebuilding the buildings destroyed as a result of an explosion, but no mention of what had caused the explosion? Something was very suspicious about this situation. Was something being covered up, hidden from the public?

He would get to the bottom of this. For Claire. She may have been lost, and his hopes for the future with her, but he would never forget, and he would not allow an insult to her memory such as this. She didn't deserve that.

* * *

 _A/N: It's literally 12:30 AM what am I doing what is this I don't even know. I'm too tired to even tell if it's decent or not but I'm gonna post it anyway. Whelp, yolo *shot*_

 _Drop a review please, if you think it's good enough to be worth a moment of your time?_

 _Feel free to leave a suggestion/request/prompt as well. I've currently got three things I'm trying to write (and one written but I'm not posting it quite yet, for reasons) but I'm always open to new ideas!_


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